Cross Roads

Rhythm City is built around a Studio called Redemption. And this it probably is for those who work at the studio and those who are indirectly affected by it. It is a smart move to base your story around a central work place because of all the personalities that are usually involved and the amount of material that is available in a setting like this. From the studio a rich set of characters emerge all representing important aspects of South African culture. Blacks, Mixed Race People, Whites and Asians. Undergirding these people are universal and relevant themes which are unique to this city and the idea, that at the heart of what most people do is music and the song. An expression of culture, religion and even a rallying point for demonstration and revolt. Beyond this though the idea of Rhythm seems to represent a deliberate organization of musical elements into a structure that like a heartbeat drives and keep people alive. The freshness of liberated life and the ch...

After quite a lot of time was invested into MSNBC news and coverage right through the first and second terms of the Obama Presidency, i may have emerged with some sense of the difference between the two media power houses. This project was undertaken after experiencing some of the intellectual back and forth between these two giants. Maybe the few punches that were thrown are justified, what they are though is distracting at least from the bigger picture. The effect of these battles is great if it can be restricted or drawn away from the companies that were designed to deliver content. But this can prove challenging especially because of the personalities that are involved and this is at the heart of these two media houses. Delivery of news in MSNBC is designed around strong single personalities whereas Fox News seems to focus more on groups of personalities. The former is good because it allows you to narrow the target of the attack and to place the blame on individ...

We live in an interesting city whose transportation system often takes on several uses one of which is advertising. There is an inconvenient message on one of this sixteen seater transport vehicles whose message needs some attention. Not all Africans are Black. A little too obvious? Not really. Some of what helped add fuel to the desires for change in Sudan, was based on different ideas regarding this very subject. The fallout from this thinking was obvious when, after the referendum, hundreds and thousands of darker skinned Sudanese people made the decision to cross into the new border and head further South. Sudan has an interesting history to say the least and it is often forgotten that the country has more pyramids than those in Egypt. There was a point in time when in it seemed to carry the full load of African challenges. She had hosted historic battles between the British (Gordon) and the Muslims(Mahdi) and was beginning to deal with the challenges of developme...

If while grading tests or exams you come across two sheets of paper whose answers appear frighteningly similar, the first thing you will do is try to find out what the seating arrangement was like. Should it become clear that two people sitting in close proximity to each other have produced responses similar in nature, then you would raise the flag. Uganda and Kenya are countries which share a common border as well as access to a world's largest fresh water lake. If the news stations in the area are anything to go by, then the similarities in governance and administration should be noted or perhaps even flagged for future reference. The first and most notable was the replication of Uganda's broad system of governance and affirmative action which was designed to help bring women onto the fore. While critics for some of these systems exist, it is well beyond the scope of this web log. The Kenyans saw it and liked it and replicated it and as a result increased the size of their a...

The good book is full of references to a supernatural God who intervenes in human affairs but there are also plenty of ideas for military strategists. The use of loud music and instrumentalists to create a distraction (Joshua), The use of a sling to attack a physically superior opponent (David), Capitalization on superstition and dreams to force compromise in the face of a superior foe (Gideon).  So what does the play book look like for the ruling government and the opposition? It has taken a few years for the opposition to realize that the ruling government cannot be dealt with using a weak opposition. We have been through the stage at which a possible replacement was found and given a measure of space to run as a sole candidate for two terms. Revelations by a prominent renegade general have helped fuel hopes for governance and vindication in the heart of many hopefuls but this is a little misplaced. I think that we will look to our neighbors. A seasoned man could rise, preferab...

Toward the end of the semester, students can be seen rushing to find their lecturers and professors in the search for retakes and other campus challenges. Most of this activity doubles when graduation time draws near. The students realize that after all the activity and the training and the relationships with peers, the laughter, the tears and the struggle, most of their lives are going to be run by what happens on those sheets of paper. If they are part of the institution, they are gripped with the realization that they must submit to its requirements and processes in order to achieve their ends. They are after all getting educated. In another setting just as intense although often not very regulated, some young business person struggles in the midday sun fabricating pieces of scrap metal into all sorts of products for a vibrant and youthful economy. In the place the instructor, he has a scruffy looking master under whose tutelage he has sat for the past three years doing all sorts of...

I hear that you are thinking about working for the Buganda government. I have a few ideas to put across in this regard. I have written what in my view are some comments regarding the work that the New Vision has done to date most of which has been done under your watch. The media group which you lead, has made a lot of progress and has contributed a lot in the development of the country. As you consider this move, you need to ask yourself a few questions. Firstly, is a move to Kingdom business a strategic move into a bigger space or is it a deliberate move into a smaller more intimate position where improvements will be easier to see and quantify? In other words, is Uganda still subsumed by Buganda. The structure of your dailies reveals that your paper even if it has global reach is designed to cater for Ugandans. There are sections that are designed to handle regional challenges (largely ethnic) and religious ones (with coverage of most of the major religions). In short the structure ...

Talent Search I read a story once about a great teacher who made it a habit to teach his followers using hidden mysteries. In one of these he describes a man who gives out money to his laborers in an effort to test them. The first invests heavily and doubles the money, the second does the same even if his return in not as great as the first. The third hides his money and restores it to his master. The master on returning is thrilled at the work that is done by the first two but deals harshly with the last man. He even goes so far as to take what the last man gives him only to then transfer it to the first man. The lesson for us is simple. We all have something to offer and we must at the very least invest what we are given to ensure that it is multiplied.  Maybe this is what the intersection awards will be about. Identifying people who take little and make it into much. People who stand out in their ability to help those who are dealing with change and transition. There will be man...

Its been few months and more than that since the two social media giants declared their initial public offerings. While there have been more successes for twitter than facebook (which floundered at the start and then seemed to stabilize) there is a more to come-albeit on the negative side. The figures that can be generated by advertizing revenue are not likely to change, but users base will be affected. People who signed up for the social experience will decrease. There were similar negative responses to the reported purchase of Tumblr by Yahoo and while these seem to pass with time key personalities on the social scene will be lost. It has not helped that revelations by Mr. Snowden have revealed the hand of certain governments in illegal surveillance activities. In addition to this, growth of this kind tends to force large corporations and their owners to dine with enemy.  While google seems to have played is safe, by starting with search and then launching out into other bus...

It's been about three months since I watched Quentin Tarrantino's Django Unchained and although I have written briefly about his work ( http://intas8n.blogspot.com/2013/11/san-quentins-narrative-on-slavery.html) I cannot claim to have completely plumbed the depths of it's effects on me. His project sits alongside House ( created by Davis Shore and written by Lawrence Kaplow and Peter Blake and featuring amongst others Hugh Laurie) even if they dwell in broadly different categories. When I first was introduced to House, I was fascinated by the dialogues and the central character. The best way to describe it is in the form of art and music. Every time the man spoke you felt as though he was painting and drawing. You felt as though he was dancing across a wide open space and that with every word, a new breathtaking combination was being revealed. Tarantino had the same effect although his mastery was combined with an A list of characters both comical in their presentatio...

I came a across a gem created for the Metro-Golwyn-Meyer. It features Robert Duvall and James Earl Jones (A family thing) and deals with the broad theme of Racial Relations between African Americans and Caucasians. The two protagonists are driven into a historical but inward journey of self-discovery in which they are forced to confront their definitions of family and identity. If there is any message for me in this particular work is that there are some issues in American Culture that are too sensitive to expose and that must be kept in the closest of sacred memories in which only The eyes of former masters and slaves can behold. The danger in our current age and in the American Experience is that unclean shoes have been allowed to tread on the sacred ground of American History. The result of this has been the disruption of Black-white relations and the interruption of decades of progress and reconciliation. It's like a two man dance that has been ruined by a third overly ...

We are currently inundated with news about the troubles in South Sudan, a country we are now accustomed to referring to as the world newest nation. So the first point to remember is that South Sudan was born a long time ago. The moment a rebellion began in the hearts of a few generals almost thirty years ago, South Sudan came into existence. So one of the most important things to realize is that you cannot separate the nation from the people's libration army (SPLA). You could argue that Uganda is faced with the same dilemma. It's resistance movement now in power for over 25 years, wins a significant part of the war and therefore writes the history and defines the narrative. Any movement if given enough time to exist can make it seem that no others have ever existed. So Uganda's history now seems to be the history of the NRM and it's leaders. The results of this kind of thinking are many but one of the more obvious ones is that the military begins to be seen as...

Hope First Group was really established to help people deal with transition. I cannot help but think about the U.S as she prepares for a transition of sorts and as battles begin for the white house. My question is did the election of Barack Obama mean that the U.S was ready for change and if it did how far is the U.S and her citizens willing to push the envelope of change. Is the Country willing enough to elect a woman (most of what is celebrated for blacks, also often includes the rights of women)?. Is the country willing to go this way thereby preserving the democrats and restoring the W.H to the Clinton's? Should they wait for the power of that same name at a later stage so that a mother (Hillary) instead prepares the spot for a daughter (Chelsea). Or is the time ripe for a handover to a dynamic leader (Christie) whose  frankness and ability to handle disaster illustrates the challenges of the future (nature-centered). On the home front (Uganda), some analysts ( Andrew Mwenda ) ...

The entrance of a new player in the restaurant business( KFC ) is a watershed moment for the industry and a pat on the back for Uganda. A few years ago, i did a little research on a facility in the U.S whose menu i kind of fancied. Well it turns out, that they had location in Libya and South Africa but no place else in Africa. My research went on to show that the basic costs of establishing a franchise were about Million U.S dollars. Even if excitement seems a little misplaced, there is a lot to celebrate and anticipate for the future. An American brand finally feels comfortable enough to set up in Uganda. Even if there have been mergers and other brands (especially from South Africa), this is a little different. For starters, the South African businesses were mainly in retail ( Shoprite ) and the closest we've gotten to linking this business to the U.S was the reported take over by retail giant WallMart .    Establishing a presence within Africa is simple enough. Setting some...

In a previous post we attempted to tackle the interesting transition from Journalism to Politics and identified some key players in this complex process. While it would seem foolhardy to focus on the goings on of one nation and then extrapolate the effects on a global scale, certain similarities between others larger nations exist and probably have served as fuel for the operations of many long serving governments. The recent bill to regulate the operations of NGOs in Kenya as well as the contentious Media Bill in the same country are stark reminders of the realities of governance in Africa. None of these events occur in Isolation, Russia, a few months prior had attempted and succeeded in closing some Non Governmental Organizations which in its view were designed to cause instability in it's populace. Similar sentiments were echoed in Egypt when she shut down several NGOs which it suspected has suspicious funding sources. If there are any two parties or groups which can be bl...

It's been about months since I watched a rather informative program by the Al Jazeera News Network. It was about the transition from Journalism into politics and the challenges that journalists in Israel were facing. There was a brief historical account in which the writer described how power had shifted from generals to other groups but more specifically to journalists and media people. The irony as was stated in the documentary was that media people were still perhaps the least trusted group in Israel. I mentioned this because there are pattern or trend setting nations which others watch and others imitate. Uganda has faced something similar, both nations have vibrant military type leadership systems and governance styles that mirror each other. Even if Uganda pales in comparison to Egypt there are similarities between the functions of the latter to those of the former. The management of the transition from journalism to politics is interesting and is worth mentioning bec...